


A Night in Everfree

by reaperofdemon92



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Dark, Grimdark, Minor Character Death, Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 18:59:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17371550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reaperofdemon92/pseuds/reaperofdemon92
Summary: Fluttershy gets everyone at her cottage ready for bed, however Angel bunny goes missing and the last place he was seen was near the edge of the forest. Scared to step hoof into the forest but worried for her bunny's well being, Fluttershy must go forth to search for Angel bunny.Little does she know that a deadly force lies in wait in the shadowed brambles of the everfree forest.





	A Night in Everfree

It was a cool evening, Celestia’s bright sun was disappearing into the endless horizon, dying the vast sky in iridescent hues of pink, purple, gold, and blue before fading into a faint rosy red while the rest was a pitch ink black with bright stars of Luna’s night.  
Fluttershy had just got her animals accounted for, all the birds were in their houses, the rodents and small mammals were in their dens, and the animals that lived with the pink maned Pegasus in her cottage, which consisted of squirrels, a raccoon, several small birds, and even the crawling spider and large bear, were all safe and cozy among the fireplace with the pony.  
“Everyone’s all here now?” she asked them. They all answered with a happy chitter, tweet, and the bear’s low growl. The mare smiled but felt that something was missing. It took her a minute to realize her white and usually cynical rabbit, Angel bunny, wasn’t present.  
“Has anyone seen Angel?” Fluttershy asked in genuine concern. They all either shrugged or made unsure sounds. A small chipmunk let out a pip, catching the pony’s attention. “Huh? What’s that?” she asked, the small critter skittered to the window, pointing outside as if to say that it knew where the rabbit went.  
“In the forest?!” Fluttershy was baffled with terror and worry. The looming trees and branches of the everfree forest swayed in the night breeze, hauntingly, their shadowed outlines made out in princess Luna’s moonlight. The yellow Pegasus pony whimpered and trembled at the thought of having to go into the forest at this hour, but her fears were overshadowed by her concerns for her beloved bunny’s safety.  
She swallowed and decided to put on a brave face. “F-for angel’s sake, I’m gonna have to tough it out.” She said, grabbing a nearby lantern before turning to her friends. “Um… anyone coming with me?”  
They looked from her to the forest outside, taking a step back, even the bear who was the biggest of them. As much as they loved the Pegasus mare they weren’t looking to take any risk of going into the dark forest that any of them barely knew about.  
Sighing in defeat, Fluttershy knew she was on her own from there. “O-ok, I… guess I’ll go m-myself.” She whimpered.  
She picked up the lantern with her teeth and set out to find Angel Bunny.  
~  
As soon as she entered the brush, she looked around for any signs of the white rabbit, hoping he hadn’t gone far.  
The ground was soft against her hooves, the light from her lantern illuminating the surrounding area, she peered through the brush and bramble keeping her eyes and ears peeled. She moved the lantern from her mouth to her wing before calling out.  
“Angel? Angel bunny!”  
No answer so far, just the calm of the dark surrounding her and the hush of wind against the leaves.  
“Here Angel bunny!” She called out. Hoping that this was just another one of the rabbit’s cruel antics, some kind of sick joke and any moment he would jump out to scare her. She hated getting scared.  
“Angel! This isn’t funny! Come out! Please?”  
Though she knew the rabbit wasn’t always that mean, especially to her, he knew how sensitive and easily scared she would get so he wouldn’t possibly be doing this to her on purpose.  
“Angel?”  
The shadows on the trees and nearby boulders moved and shaped as though they were alive. Memories flooded in her mind of when she was a young filly, ponies her age, even after she left cloudsdale, would bully and belittle her timid nature and easily scared she was. How they would play cruel jokes on her by jumping up from behind her to startle her sometimes wearing masks, calling her a scaredy cat. There were even times when they would tell spooky stories just to scare her even more. They would tell her stories of the forest, of terrifying creatures that lived in it and would wait for ponies to pass by to eat them, but the worst of them was the story of the Dryad.  
Apparently, a young filly had been tricked into going into the deepest part of the forest by some mean ponies before getting lost. She had wandered the forest for days, hunger overcame her, confusing twists and turns overwhelmed her, until eventually all hope and common sense left her to the point where she took a sharp branch and stabbed her eyes out. She wandered blindly, trailing blood behind her, until she fell from a cliff, breaking every bone in her body, dying instantly. As her body sat there rotting, a tree grew on the spot and her spirit became one with it before walking out from its bark in a new body, monstrous and hungry, she was now known as the dryad.  
It was said that anypony that got lost in the woods and met the dryad would meet a gruesome fate at its jaws, running would be useless, it was very fast, hiding would also prove useless, it could smell even the tiniest amount of fear, the only way to ward off the creature was to find a branch from a cedar, burn it like a torch, and lash it out in front of her, it will scare her away. Unfortunately, cedar wasn’t that easy to find in the everfree.  
A loud snap of a twig drove Fluttershy out of her thoughts, she turned in the direction the sound came from. “Angel?” she spoke, slightly starting to regret breaking the silence.  
No answer.  
Fluttershy went toward the direction hoping to catch glimpse of her bunny. She moved the leaves of the shrub aside to find a white, fluffy tail and long ears. “Oh Angel!” she said happily, “There you are! I was so worried that-” the rabbit turned its head to look at her, revealing a brown patch going from its forehead down over it’s right eye. This wasn’t her bunny.  
“Oh… sorry,” she apologized to the rabbit, “I thought you were someone else.”  
The critter twitched its adorable nose at her before hopping away, Fluttershy wished it would’ve stuck around a little longer, she really didn’t want to be alone right now.  
The light in her lantern was beginning to die, Fluttershy knew she had to find Angel soon before she was left in total darkness. “A-Angel…” she whimpered, feeling tears of fright prick at her eyes, “Where are you…?”  
She ventured back through the dark thicket of brambles, accidently scratching herself against spiny thorns developing on it, she was sure she was bleeding.  
The moon was high above the trees of the everfree, its light barely peaking through the leaves to illuminate the path. Looking around in the dying light of the lantern, she could make out the shapes of several jagged rocks and boulders up ahead, she must be near the bottom of a mountain, how far had she gone from her cottage? From ponyville? No way Angel bunny would’ve gone this far from home without her consent.  
Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy wandered one direction the mountain went, staying close to the rocky wall. Calling out. “Angel bunny!” in hopes that he would hear her and come to her.  
A hurried rustle sounded in the brush beside her like a startled animal, “Angel?” she said, “Is that you? Please answer me.”  
She could’ve sworn she saw something move, making her gasp. It didn’t look like a little rabbit. Gradually, she sped up her pace trotting along by the mountain wall, trying to escape whatever it was that was following her.  
Suddenly she tripped over a rotted log, dropping her lantern which rolled to the roots of a tall tree. Fluttershy staggered back to her feet before making a bee line for her lantern, doing whatever she could to re-ignite the dimming flame inside.  
She looked up at the tree in front of her, it was taller than any of the other trees in the forest, it bore no leaves, moss grew on its branches, and its wood petrified.  
Red flags went off in Fluttershy’s head as she gazed upon the tree, its presence filling her with intimidation, telling her to run, to get away. But something caught her eye near the bottom of the trunk, she came closer to inspect it. Her eyes flooded with fat tears and bile rose up her esophagus as she saw what turned out to be a severed rabbit’s foot. Small, white, fuzzy, with pink pads on the paw, lying in a puddle of crimson blood soaking itself in the soil.  
It couldn’t be Angel’s, could it? She thought.  
A loud, wet, crunch made her jump and slowly she walked around the petrified trunk, peeking around to find what looked like a crouching figure. Its ‘skin’ looked as though it were made of bone, no hair, no tail, its ears low as the crunching sound grew louder. She raised her lantern a tad to get a better look at it before she felt a twig snap under her hoof, the creature seemed to have taken notice as its ears snapped upward, its head raised up and turned a 360-degree angle, each movement it made sounded of bone cracking. A sharp, jagged, grin was spread across its face, which let out a raspy groan, its eye sockets hollow aside from a pair of glowing. iris-like, rings floating in the center which were red that bled into yellow near the center. Blood seeped from its jagged mouth with bits of meat hanging out. It stood up on long, spindly, stilt-like legs that ended not into hooves but sharp points. Lying at its ‘feet’ was the carcass of a small, half-eaten animal with familiar white fur.  
Fluttershy could feel her heart pounding hard in her chest as the thing drew near, smiling at her, opening its maw as it let out a hissing moan, the stench of decaying flesh and rotten meat erupted from its breath. Fluttershy stepped back unable to look away from it. It loomed over her with its mouth wide open, wide enough for her head to fit in.  
It made to strike but Fluttershy dodged, at breakneck speed she ran for dear life, dying lantern in her mouth. She could hear the bone cracking movements of the monster chasing after her, she made her way through the scratching thrush, several feathers from her wings as well as several hairs from her pink mane and tail and her pale yellow coat getting snagged along the way, gripping her lantern until her teeth hurt but she ignored it too focused on getting away from the thing.  
She went as fast as she could, adrenaline rushing through her weary legs, but no matter how fast she went the thing caught up with her, keeping her in its sights. She panted, running short of breath, thinking quickly she scooped a stone in her hoof and chucked it at the creature’s face. It let out a high-pitched shriek of pain and stumbled in halt as Fluttershy bolted into a hollow trunk while it was momentarily distracted, even if it was pointless.  
Her heart hammered, her breath heavy, she tried to stay as quiet as possible as she took the short moment to collect her thoughts, trying to remember the story and what should be done to get rid of it. Get a branch, burn it, and wave it in front of it to scare it away?  
That’s how she remembered it at least; there was no more time to think. The beast sniffed the air, it could detect the mare’s delicious mix of fear and confusion.  
The thrill was in the chase.  
It came closer to the hollow the mare hid in, groaning in hushed delight. Did she really think she could hide from it that easily? It leapt to the spot, shoving its head in the entrance, its gaping jaws searching for the timid pony’s flesh. Fluttershy pressed herself against the inside of the old tree, staying out of its reach. It snapped and pushed itself into the entrance until the worn wood eventually gave in and fell back. Fluttershy saw an opportunity to escape through the cracked opening near the bottom of the uprooted hollow, the creature’s face got comically mashed against the inside where Fluttershy’s skull would’ve been as it fell with the lump of wood.  
While it was stuck Fluttershy escaped, finding herself at the edge of a wide ravine, and searched to and fro for a fallen branch before it could get unstuck. She settled on a fairly large one laying at the bottom of a sturdy oak. It still had leaves on it thank celestia, with what little flame was left in her lantern she stuck part of the stick inside, the tip of one of its leaves managed to catch some flame but ever so slowly.  
The beast managed to pull its head out of the hollow, shaking off bits of wood and rot from its face and turned with a loud snap to the yellow Pegasus. As soon as she managed to get the leaves on the stick to alight slightly she blew to get it to grow. The beast crept up behind her, like a spider creeping up on its prey, ready to feast. With all her might, Fluttershy waved the finally lit branch in front of it. The Dryad jumped back in surprise as she made to scare it away with her lit weapon, a hint of confidence starting to develop. She thought she knew what she was doing but it didn’t run away like she hoped, instead it suddenly swiped the flame out of her hold, the fire died. The Dryad made a sound in the back of its throat as though it were laughing at her foolishness; yes, she got it right but the wood she picked up was not cedar.  
The pony stared at the burnt oak branch in defeat before looking back up at the beast’s face as it drew closer to her, she backed away until her rear hoof felt the ravine’s ledge. No where else to run or hide, Fluttershy thought to accept her fate at first but looking back behind her, her thoughts turned to one other thing. The very thought terrified her, She had promised herself that she would never attempt to do it again but with the situation she was in right now, she felt she had little choice.  
The Dryad raised its head and made to strike down at her once again and as quickly as she could, Fluttershy turned and leapt for her life over the ravine, her wings spread apart.


End file.
